How do sites like TripAdvisor affect travel? Do you read and take heed of the reviews on such social media sites when planning your next trip?

In last Monday's New York Times Susan Stellin explored the effect of TripAdvisor's 40 million reviews on how folks travel. At issue, especially from the hotelier and outfitters' perspective is the fact that some reviews go beyond to-be-expected complaining and honest criticism about "filthy toilets and snooty staff" to become inflammatory, some reviews accuse hotel staff of criminality. TripAdvisor says it's simply a forum for travelers' remarks and reviews while hoteliers reply that it steps beyond neutrality in some instances.

To my mind, it doesn't seem TripAdvisor will be going anywhere soon. In fact, its existence has given birth to a whole new type of company, one like San Francisco's Revinate, a firm that for $200-$600 a month will track and analyze a hotel's online reviews.

And, checking on TripAdvisor right now, I see they've grown from just restaurant and hotel reviews to offer ideas of things to do while on the road as well as provide a venue for travelers to review cruises and vacation rentals.

Let us know if you depend on TripAdvisor before booking a hotel, tour, vacation rental or merely heading out to dinner. Do a handful of negative reviews scare you away from a hotel/cruise/restaurant? How do you use TripAdvisor and other sites like it?

 

Last year, Rainer Jenss traveled around the world with his wife and two sons, and blogged about his experience here on Intelligent Travel. Now he's writing a column that focuses on traveling with kids.

When asked for travel advice, I usually recommend people try to visit a place during its "shoulder season" to take advantage of smaller crowds, cheaper rates, and in many cases, better weather.  Although it can be impractical with children of school age, Yellowstone National Park is a prime case in point, as is a place like Greece, which we traveled to in mid-May - the time before its majestic islands and famous attractions are usually overtaken by waves of summertime crowds and heat.

As the world becomes more accessible and the tourist dollar proves more important to local economies, an increasing number of destinations are trying to bring in visitors during what are typically their slower periods.  Various spots throughout the Caribbean, for example, offer not only bargain prices in the summer months, but festivals featuring local culture, top-name entertainers, and special events to attract incoming vacationers.  Aware of this growing trend, our family decided to spend a few days in Lake Placid, NY this summer - a destination certainly better known for its winter pursuits than anything else.   Like many resort towns that have traditionally thrived only when there's snow on the ground, the city that hosted the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympic Games is now offering activities geared to families and outdoor enthusiasts year-round.

New Mexico-based writer and photographer Ellen Barone takes us through a rain-soaked Isle of Mull and shares how to to photograph and really see a place.

Travel and photography are natural partners and whether you're carrying a sophisticated DSLR, a pocket-sized point-and-shoot or an iPhone, today's technology has made it easier than ever to look, snap, and share.

But seldom does a photograph succeed because of technology. It succeeds for one reason: because the person behind the camera took the time to see. If you're like most travelers, you want to bring back memorable photographs of your trips. Yet how many of us are packing everything but time to see into our vacations?

On a recent business trip to Scotland I discovered a one-day photography workshop on the Isle of Mull, an island off the country's west coast boasting some of the finest and most varied scenery in the Inner Hebrides. Traveling solo and without a car, I welcomed the opportunity to visually explore with a local photographer as the perfect compliment to a week of indoor meetings.

Who knew it would be pouring and blowing a gale on the one day I had available for the excursion? But despite the conditions, photographer Sam Jones of Islandscape Photography met me, and two other intrepid travelers enrolled in the workshop, at the ferry, prepared to either tough it out in the rain or shuttle us to the local distillery for a tasting tour.

Read more about Ellen's Scotland escapade after the jump.

How does your city rank in the hierarchy of trick-or-treat? Which cities provide the most candy, with the least walking and safety risks?

For the second year in a row, the real-estate website Zillow has picked the Top U.S. Cities for Trick-or-Treating, based on population density, walkability, and other key factors.  And the richer neighborhoods aren't necessarily the most candy-tastic.  From the Zillow report:

There is a common belief that wealthy neighborhoods are the Holy Grail for harvesting the most Halloween candy. However, to provide a more holistic approach to trick-or-treating, the Zillow Trick-or-Treat Housing Index was calculated using four equally weighted data variables: Zillow Home Value Index, population density, Walk Score and local crime data from Relocation Essentials. Based on those variables, the Index represents cities that will provide the most candy, with the least walking and safety risks.

Huffington Post provides a photo gallery of the top ten, and highlights some of the Halloween attractions of each. 

• While traveling, I strive to stick to the wise (and diarrhea-free) traveler's adage: "If you can't cook it or peel it, forget it!" and order my drinks without ice. Maybe there's a little more leeway than that; check out Laurel Miller's five tips to successfully eating street food here.

• Getting ready to travel this holiday season? Dreading having to sit next to an "oversized" passenger on a long-haul flight to Grandma's? Rob Goldstone--5'7" and 285 pounds--shows us the other side of the coin in "The Tricks and Trials of Traveling While Fat." He explains how he's adapted his traveling techniques (buying two seats, beseeching flight attendants for a seat-belt extender at the start of flights) and details some of the surprises he's encountered while traveling the world while fat: being told not to ride Vietnam's rickshaws, struggling to pass through a bus's turnstile en route to a Rio beach, and being playfully poked in the belly by curious kids in China who thought he resembled the Buddha.

• For those coming to D.C. for this Saturday's Jon Stewart Rally on the National Mall, you'll be sure to get hungry from all of your sanity restoring. Check out this list of ten great D.C. restaurants and put our D.C. City Guide to good use.

Photo of National Mall by Photo Phiend on Creative Commons.

Do you go gaga over gloves for your feet, bamboo water bottles you can shove in the dishwasher, and headlamps that let you stretch battery life to fit your trip? Then you'll love National Geographic Adventure's recently unveiled Gear of the Year 2010. It features the latest and best in adventure products, from wetsuits to banana skis, backpacks to helmetcams.

Pictured below is the latest five-toed Bikila running shoe by Vibram, that allows you to run barefoot without puncture wounds. Perhaps you could drop a hint to Santa?

1. If you are in New York City, don't miss the 38th annual New York Village Halloween Parade on Halloween. Named the greatest event on earth by Festivals International, this parade is America's largest Halloween festival. The festival includes nearly 60,000 marchers along with an open forum for artists and is suitable for adults and children. Everyone is encouraged to dress up in their costume of choice to watch the parade. The fun begins on 6th Ave. at 7 p.m. and lasts about two hours.

• Hip and erudite, wacky and at times lurid, Esotouric leads unpredictable bus tours of L.A.'s fascinating and neglected neighborhoods. Tour themes mix crime and social history, literature and film, rock n' roll and architecture and explore the L.A. of Raymond Chandler, Tom Waits, James Ellroy, John Fante, and Charles Bukowski.

• Scientists are growing coral in nurseries and hope to transplant the coral to Islamorada's Davis Reef in the Florida Keys. If all takes, such a procedure could be a way to re-establish reefs damaged by humans.

• Internet travel provider Friendly Planet Travel has announced an ultra low-price trip to three of China's most fascinating spots: Beijing, Xi'an (haunt of the Terra Cotta warriors), and Shanghai. The Taste of China itinerary starts at $999 per person and includes round-trip airfare to and from L.A.

Photo: Charlie Ridgeway

Journalist Jeff Fleischer spent 2008 in New Zealand and the South Pacific on a fellowship studying climate change. He sends us this stark look at the state of affairs in Fiji since the 2006 coup.

To those who don't follow current affairs in Oceania, the idea of Fiji usually evokes images of idyllic beaches full of frolicking tourists, jungles rich in volcanic soil, and a laid-back lifestyle perfect for holiday. Unfortunately, for those who do pay attention to that part of the world, the overriding view of Fiji is that of an island of despotism within a generally pacific Pacific.

Run by a military regime that seized power in a December 2006 coup and which has become increasingly oppressive as its power has become entrenched, Fiji now makes headlines for imprisoning editors, expelling diplomats, putting elected leaders under house arrest, and intimidating those who speak out with mandatory visits to a compound ominously known as "The Barracks." Those headlines, however, rarely show up in publications in the West.

What I found during my brief time there in 2008 was that both images of Fiji are completely true, and nowhere is that more obvious than in the country's two main destinations Nadi and Suva.

Read more on Fiji's two cities after the jump.

Notice anything wrong with this picture? 

This beach has white sand, seaweed, bathers, tiny waves, rocky cliffs, and is subject to tides, but it's not on the ocean.

Located near the town of Llanes in Asturias in northern Spain, the odd little beach of Gulpiyuri stands by itself in a depression in the middle of an agricultural field. Declared a Spanish Natural Heritage site, the beach and lagoon are actually a karst sinkhole, created when the nearby Cantabrian Sea dug through the limestone cliffs, making underground tunnels for the sea to come through, and collapsing the roof of a limestone cave. At high tide, the sinkhole fills with ocean water.

Want more Spanish wonders?  Check out our Spain Travel Guide and photo gallery.

Photo: Oviedo for 91 Days blog, via Neatorama

• Musical cabaret trio the Dim Sum Dollies sing about how to "love your ride" on Singapore's public transit system, the MRT, in the video above.

• Get married Maya-style at Mexico's Playa del Carmen on the Yucatán Peninsula. Maya shamans conduct the authentic ceremony in the Maya language as bride and groom exchange the symbolic gifts of corn and cacao. Ceremonies incorporate pre-Hispanic music and can be held in a chapel, on the beach, or near Mayan ruins.

• Architecture students at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia constructed a shed made of recycled phone books. The laminated phone books that constitute the roof help weatherproof the structure that's also something of a time capsule, preserving the names and numbers of those listed in the building-block phone books. [neatorama]

Jeanine Barone, a travel writer with an eye for hidden treasures, sends us this note on the state of birds in Malta.

If the local hunters in Malta had their way, the only bird species you'd ever spot would be on a plate or stuffed and mounted over the mantel. That's what I discovered two weeks before I arrived in Malta by reading "Emptying the Skies," a shocking New Yorker article describing the traditional shooting and trapping of songbirds and endangered bird species in Malta, as well as in Cyprus and Italy. Pity these birds taking flight along the major migratory route that lies between Europe and Africa. Luckily, my winged friends have a fierce advocate in BirdLife Malta, a relentless conservation group that works to protect wild birds and their habitats.

Not far from the UNESCO World Heritage site of Valletta, I sit down with Geoffrey Saliba, the group's campaign coordinator, to chat about their contentious relationship with the hunters. In his office full of colorful bird photos and books he matter-of-factly tells me how his team lobbies for hunting restrictions, pushes for better enforcement, and keeps an eye out for illegal hunting and trapping. As a result, they have been attacked with stones, beaten, and had their cars badly damaged.

For more on birds on Malta, make the jump ...

 

"I am not a witness of the past, but of the present," says Pierre de Colbert in front of his family's château in Montpellier, France. Coming from a French count and ninth-generation winemaker whose family has been tending grapes on that spot since 1696--this is quite a statement.

Château de Flaugergues, within the city limits of Montpellier, knows why it is in business: "Here we are not focused on myself or my family--what would be the point of that? What is behind a bottle of wine?" he asks. "It is your pleasure. Sharing with your friends, spending that time with each other in pleasure."

A few years ago the family opened up the estate to visitors, who can dine at the excellent café and tour the antiques-filled house, replete with portraits of family members (including ones who were guillotined in the French Revolution).

The Château is a decidedly friendly place to visit. If you are expecting the stereotype of the aloof French, you won't find it here. The count is a friendly and intelligent man who may stop by your table or guide you through a wine tasting, or even (if you are lucky) walk you through the château and tell you the stories of some of the relatives hanging on the wall.

There was a time when all of Montpellier was a very welcoming place. The rulers made a point of encouraging people of all religions to come there. It was renowned for having Jews, Muslims, Christians and others all living together in the city, not segregated into ghettos. There are remnants of this tradition all over town, including a late 13th-century mikveh (ritual Jewish bath) recently re-discovered and under archeological study. Centuries changed and history ran its course, but it appears the welcoming traditions of Montpellier are coming back.

[France Travel Guide]

• The Convention Centre Dublin, which claims to be the first carbon-neutral convention center in the world, opened earlier this fall. Its 22 performance and exhibition halls and meeting rooms are stacked vertically to minimize the structure's horizontal footprint. The center can accommodate 8,000 people and its atrium offers spectacular views of the Liffey River. [inhabitat]

• While you may have missed this year's Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, New Mexico, held earlier this month, enjoy this spirited time-lapse video of some of the action or check out photographer Bob Krist's pointers on how to shoot video at such a big and dynamic event. To find a balloon festival near you, in the U.S. or overseas, visit this directory. 

• Tour operator Myths and Mountains is revamping some of its South America offerings for 2011. Delve into rural life this coming June at the Inka Straw Bridge Festival, see traditional Peruvian artisans at work, or go birding in an Ecuadorian Cloud Forest.

Photo: Convention Centre Dublin, inhabitat.com

 

 

Writer Lisa TE Sonne has reported for IT on synchronous fireflies in Malaysia, hunting for the northern Llghts, and catching herself while fly-fishing. Today, she tells us about make-your-own postage stamps in happy Bhutan.

In Bhutan, the Himalayan "Kingdom of Happiness," even going to the post office offers an opportunity for self-expression. At the post office in Bhutan's capital Thimphu (which may be the only world capital to boast no traffic signals), while a larger-than-life poster of the king looks on, you can have your own image added to a set of official stamps. Or, if you don't want your face to be postmarked in ports around the world, you can choose from an attractive array of botanical and historic stamps.

As getting my mug on a stamp cost no more than regular stamps, I chose to pose with my wonderful driver and guide from tour operator Bridges to Bhutan. The men--Karma and Tshering (whose name translates as "long life and prosperity")--were dressed in their national costumes, part of this new democracy's efforts to preserve traditions while creatively engaging in the 21st century.

Stamps made, if I wanted to write my letters in luxury, Karma and Tshering were prepared to take me to nearby Taj Tashi, part of an upscale Indian collection of global resorts and palaces. Or we could drive to Paro, where the Uma Paro Resort offers healthy pampering with soothing in-suite massages in their forest villas, and where Hotel Zhiwa Ling's artistic comforts are part of the first Bhutanese-owned high-end retreat.

My creativity surged as I scribbled "Wish you were here!" on postcards featuring beautiful Buddhist temples and waterfalls. And there was a lot to write home about--Bhutan's royal family, the enticing experiment of GNH ("Gross National Happiness") to balance the Gross National Product, seeing the "newest democracy on the planet" in action, the kindness of the people, the giant phallic symbols painted on homes, and the great aesthetics of the old Dzong monastery/fortresses posed at vantage points, inviting climbers to ascend.

If you time it right, you can also pen some superlatives about the colorful tshechus, the annual religious festivals, before affixing your newly created 5, 10, and 15 ngultums stamps on your envelope. Postcards sent, head to an outdoor hot-stone bath with blessed stones to fix the body and envelope yourself in serenity.

Want to learn more about Bhutan and its Gross National Happiness? Check out Boyd Matson's "Unbound" column
on the world's eighth happiest nation from our July/August 2010 issue.


 

New Yorkers can stock up on the freshest of the fresh from olive oil to oysters at Eataly, the expansive new slow-food Italian marketplace located just across the street from Madison Square Park. Mario Batali, Joe Bastianich, Lidia Matticchio Bastianich, and Eataly founder Oscar Farinetti have come together to create a world of Italian cuisine where customers can shop for, learn about, and eat freshly prepared food all in one trip. You can enjoy seafood salad at a seated counter just beside the raw bar or try freshly carved prosciutto and parmesan only seconds after it has been sliced in La Piazza, a stand-up food and drinks bar. I had the opportunity to explore the market with my friend Lauren on a recent day trip. While it did feel a bit chaotic and overwhelming (too many signs on the walls or maybe just the size of the crowd inside)--I will say that it was very clean, the food looked delicious, and the staff were friendly and knowledgeable.

Check out more photos after the jump.

National Geographic Traveler photographer Catherine Karnow shot the images of Transylvania for our October issue, and over at the B&H Insights photo blog, she shares her experiences from the shoot. Here's an excerpt:

I had just photographed inside a church during Sunday mass. Somehow I found myself following the priest as he entered a clergy room behind the church. The light was amazing. He turned and looked at me. I asked him if he would just stay there for a quick portrait. I needed my tripod because I wanted to do a highly controlled shot where I could place him perfectly with the background, be sure of the shallow depth of field, and most importantly make sure that his eyes would be sharp and piercing. I had to get that tripod up super fast, and use the ball head to get the framing before I lost the moment. In a second I was shooting his amazing expression. In three seconds, the look was gone.

To see more of Catherine's pictures, check out our photo gallery here. And to learn from Catherine directly, sign up for her Traveler photo seminar in Dallas on November 14th. Check here for the full listing of classes near you: http://ngtravelerseminars.com/

Want more info on where Andrew's going? Click through to read the Editor's Note and watch a video of Keith talking about the project.

• The New York Times has put together an impressive archival gallery of photos documenting the last 106 years of the New York City subway. [NYT]